One season ends and another begins, albeit unofficially.
But even though no deals can be rubber-stamped until early October, the bottom 10 teams will this week turn their full attention to list management.
For the reality is some players will officially request moves in the coming days after exit interviews.
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Three days after Gold Coast’s final game in 2022, Izak Rankine requested a trade to Adelaide. And two days after Fremantle’s last match the year before, Adam Cerra told the Dockers he wanted to return to Victoria.
So recent history suggests things move quickly in this space. And all clubs will be prepared for that.
All the noise out of North Melbourne suggests Ben McKay has played his last game for the club and will exercise his free agency rights by requesting a move away from the Kangaroos.
Which club he requests a move to, though, remains unclear, with a four-club bidding war set to take place for his services – an auction that’ll also decide what draft pick the Roos will receive as compensation for losing him.
Sydney, Hawthorn, Essendon and Port Adelaide have all been linked to McKay, who could command a contract worth up to $800,000 per season due to an array of other key defenders – such as Harry Himmelberg and Tom Barrass – recently recommitting to their current clubs.
The Power have been in the race for McKay, but are more likely to land another key defender, with Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and Esava Ratugolea more likely to land at Alberton than McKay.
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Ratugolea mightn’t be the only Cat that is traded to another club, with Brandan Parfitt also not expected to be on Geelong’s list next year. And Zerk-Thatcher mightn’t be the only Bomber traded, with Nick Bryan weighing up interest from West Coast despite having a contract offer from Essendon.
Fremantle and Hawthorn are also bracing for some of their players to request trades.
Improved Dockers winger Liam Henry, a Freo Next Generation Academy graduate who was taken with Pick 9, is highly likely to request a trade to a Victorian-based club after pushing back any contract talks until season’s end. While he hasn’t met with any clubs yet, Melbourne, Collingwood and St Kilda have been linked to Henry, who appears to be after a fresh start despite thriving in the back-half of Fremantle’s season.
Hawks forward Tyler Brockman is also set to ask for a move to another club, almost certainly a WA-based one. Fox Footy’s Jon Ralph reported on Saturday night Brockman was keen to move back home to be closer to support for his family, despite the Hawks being lauded for the support they’d given Brockman in recent years.
But to expedite their return to the finals, the Hawks will look to improve their list via free agency, which could include going after Ben McKay.
“We’re very keen to improve our list,” Hawks coach Sam Mitchell said post-game on Saturday.
“The last two years we’ve made significant changes to the way that the whole list profile looks and now our list profile is about where we want it to be.
“We need some finishing touches and some more talent in a couple of key areas and there’s some players out there on the free agency market that we’ll be looking towards.”
As for the Crows, they’re very keen to retain free agent Tom Doedee, whose future remains up in the air.
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Speaking on FIVEaa radio last week, Doedee expressed his desire to stay at Adelaide, but added the ACL rupture he suffered in June had thrown a spanner in the contractual works – and the offer in front of him, for now, is short of what he’s after.
“The knee’s complicated matters but hasn’t changed the overarching feel for me, which is to be a Crow for life,” Doedee said.
“But we’ve got to make that work for both parties.
“Ideal world I’m at Adelaide, but unfortunately with the way things have changed with the knee, certain stuff is still working itself out.”
But Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks on Saturday night stressed Doedee was “a player that we want to have at our footy club”.
“Tom really wants to stay at our footy club and we’ll just keep working through that with him on where that finishes up,” Nicks told reporters.
“We can’t have 60 on the list. I’d love to keep every player that’s been through our club because we have a club that’s got a lot of good people in it.
“But we’ll put our heads down now and go to work as far as what next year looks like.”
Despite an unlikely resurgence in the past six weeks, unrestricted free agent Matt Crouch is expected to leave the Crows as well, with the veteran midfielder receiving interest from several clubs in the east.
But as for Dustin Martin, who starred with 33 possessions and a goal against the Power to finish another impressive season, Tigers interim coach Andrew McQualter said he was confident the 32-year-old superstar would finish his career at Punt Road, despite speculation he could link up with new Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick at the Suns.
“It’s really clear that you can’t play the type of football Dustin has played without being so heavily invested in the football club,” McQualter said.
